SUMMER'S COMING

“Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all.” – Stanley Horowitz

The weather today in Sydney is definitely summery, with an expected top of 30˚C. The brilliant sunlight through the window in the hotel ensured I got up early in time for the breakfast meeting I had. Overall this trip has been very successful, and once again I am aware of how much work gets done over a meal. This is an interesting although not unexpected state of affairs, as it seems that people relax more over a meal and are willing to be more open to ideas and innovative proposals.

By about 8:00 am the temperature was already in the mid 20s and rising. This very unseasonable heat maybe presages a very hot summer ahead…

Some Vivaldi today. The gorgeous “Summer” from the “Four Seasons”.

HELLO FROM SYDNEY - LET'S PAR-TEA

“Tradition does not mean that the living are dead, but that the dead are living.” – GK Chesterton

The tradition of the “afternoon tea” or “high tea” is something that is essentially British and is still alive and well in Britain but also in most of the countries that once used to be British colonies and part of the British Empire, including Australia. It is a particularly civilised institution and elevates the simple act of satisfying one’s mid-afternoon hunger pangs to an art form. I am in Sydney today for work and after a full morning of meetings, which went through lunchtime and into the afternoon, it was very pleasant to be invited by my colleagues to partake of afternoon tea at one of the major hotels in Sydney, the Westin in Martin Place, close to the Post Office.

Anna, the 7th Duchess of Bedford and lady-in-waiting to Queen Victoria is often credited with the invention of the tradition of afternoon tea in the early 1840s. Traditionally dinner was not served until 8:30 or 9:00 pm and the Duchess often became hungry, especially in the summer when dinner was served even later. She ordered a small meal of bread, butter, and other niceties, such as cakes, tarts, and biscuits, to be brought secretly to her boudoir. When she was exposed she was not ridiculed, as she had feared, but her habit caught on and the concept of a small meal, of niceties and perhaps tea, became popular and eventually known as "afternoon tea". Obviously the origins of the well known British tradition of afternoon tea cannot be credited to only one woman, but evolved over a period of time, as many cultural customs do.

In 1819 the Tea Dance started to become popular, and continued through World War II. Friends and acquaintances gathered between 5:00 and 6:30 pm, with table and chairs set up around a dance floor. Tea and snacks were served at the tables while couples danced. It was perhaps the Tea Dance, and not the Duchess of Bedford’s afternoon snacks, that were the direct precursor to the tradition of afternoon tea, although the Duchess may have been one of the first to hold afternoon teas in her home.

The “at home tea” was a common practice in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. After deciding on a day of the week to hold “at home” hours, announcements to friends, relatives, and acquaintances were sent. On that particular day of the week one would remain at home all day and receive visitors. Some entertainment might be provided for the guests, but usually conversation, after the model of the French salon, was the primary entertainment. Tea and cakes, sandwiches, or other niceties were served. If sent an “at home” notice it was expected that unless regrets were sent that all who received a notice would attend. There was at least one person holding an “at home” day on any given day, and social ties were established as women saw each other almost every day at different houses.

A complex system of codes was followed during this rather formal social interaction. There were three types of social visits. The first type was to wish congratulations or condolences on the hostess when appropriate. A card was left with the message, and the visitor may or may not have been received. The ceremonial visit was brief, and when another visitor was announced the ceremonial guest, usually an acquaintance whose visit would increase the social standing of one of the parties involved, would excuse themselves and retreat. The third type of visit was that of friendship. A friend would only visit during the appointed at home hours, but the rules of behavior were less strict. For example, the friend was not expected to leave if another guest arrived, as one of the functions of the tea was to socialise with a group of friends.

When tea was served the hostess sat at one end of the table and supervised its pouring for her guests. The eldest daughter of the household, or the closest friend of the hostess, served coffee or chocolate if it was desired. The division of serving privileges was indicative of the varying importance of the three beverages served at this time. Tea was a valuable commodity, and stored in locked tea caddies for which only the woman of the household held the key. In allowing the eldest daughter, or friend, to serve the other beverages, and reserving the privilege of serving of tea to only herself, she set levels of social significance. This is an interesting parallel to the lord of the house serving the tea in China. In both cases it is the host with the most power who serves the tea, in spite of the gender differences. Men in nineteenth century Britain were higher on the public scale of social hierarchies, but the woman was in charge of the household, and creating the genteel atmosphere connected with formal social visits. As a result she was more powerful within the house than the man. Even when the British “lord of the manor” was present it was the woman's responsibility and privilege to serve tea.

The hostess also added the sugar, milk or lemon to the tea for the guests. By the 20th century, these substances were common and inexpensive enough to serve often and to many guests. However, the cultural legacy from when both tea and sugar were rare and expensive luxury goods, created a situation in which the hostess desired, or was expected, to be in control of the amount consumed. When sugar and tea were first introduced only the aristocracy were able to possess them. They displayed their power and wealth by consuming these rare, luxury goods. Tea and sugar were more common by the 1800's, but as consumable luxuries they still suggested power and wealth. The upper classes wealthy enough to hire servants had them serve the tea and guests were allowed to add their own sugar, milk or lemon to the tea. By releasing control over tea and sugar the upper classes demonstrated their wealth and ability to buy as much of these commodities as desired. This asserted their social standing through the careless consumption of luxury goods.

The menu for afternoon tea varied widely and depended very much on the status and wealth of the household involved. However, usually both savoury and sweet selections were available. A traditional menu of a wealthy household may have included the following:

Freshly baked scones (currant or plain) served with clotted cream and homemade preserves
Banbury buns served with sweet butter
Tea cake, Madeira cake, fruit cake (slices)

Assorted tea sandwiches including:
*Cucumber and watercress
*Smoked salmon pinwheels
*Rare roast beef
*Chicken salad with toasted walnuts
*Classic egg salad
*Thinly sliced cheddar and tomato
*Black Forest ham and Swiss cheese

Assorted bite-size sweets including:
Iced chocolate diamonds
Miniature fruit tarts
Fairy cakes with whipped cream
Miniature cakes filled with a vanilla mousse
Shortbread fingers
Handmade chocolate truffles

Seasonal fruit
Cheese and crackers

Needless to say that the status of the household was not only reflected in the quality and variety of comestibles, but also on the quality of the china and silverware in use. The three-tiered silver small cake or sandwich stands are particularly associated with the British afternoon tea tradition.

One of the most celebrated afternoon tea parties in literature occurs in Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland”, where Alice meets the Mad Hatter, the Dormouse and the March Hare. Carroll sends up the Victorian tradition very nicely and pokes fun at what must have often been stuffy occasions designed to showcase nouveau-riche wealth.

Weather in Sydney today is delightful and Spring-like.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

A WHOLE LOT OF WORDS

“I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.” – Nikos Kazantzakis

We live in perilous times. This is a critical period of our existence in the wake of globalisation, which, however, co-exists with increasing nationalism and the rise of a myriad nations as larger countries are broken up into fragments – where are the USSR, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia nowadays? It important to stand back a little and differentiate between globalisation and internationalisation; ecumenicity and latitudinarianism; patriotism, nationalism and fascism.

Internationalisation is the process whereby the advocacy of cooperation and understanding between nations is espoused. Globalisation on the other hand is a concept that has become confined to the meaning that describes the capitalistic ideal of a market so wide, as to embrace all consumers on the globe. Ecumenicity is that policy that promotes unity among the world’ s Christian churches – different from latitudinarianism, a more inclusive term that allows latitude in religion, showing no preference among varying creeds and forms of worship. Patriotism is the noble virtue (or so we are taught at school) of vigorously supporting one’s country and being prepared to defend it against enemies or detractors, while nationalism is extreme patriotism, tinged with feelings of superiority over other countries. Fascism is an authoritarian right-wing system of government and social organisation that carries patriotic nationalism to its extremes.

Nikos Kazantzakis, the Greek author, has considered these meanings and defines latitudinarian internationalisation as the only viable solution to the accumulating ills of the world. He maintains that in order for humans to survive on earth for the longer term, they need to find a balance between the extremes of slavery and anarchy. He purports that this happy medium was first approached by the ancient Greeks whose intellect achieved a balance between extremes, whose concept of the “golden mean” exemplified the ideal of moderation in all things. Kazantzakis, perhaps tottering on nationalism himself, names this breed of human being Homo hellenicus. Rational people worldwide may espouse his ideology, but it would only be the Greeks or philhellenes that would embrace Kazantzakis’ nationalistic characterisation of the new species of human being.

Homo hellenicus (for want of a better name) recognises freedom as the most valuable part of a human being’s self respect. Liberty is great responsibility as it rejects the anarchy of egocentricity. But liberty also respects individuality and repudiates slavery, while espousing the disciplined acceptance of society’s laws and advocates the good of society as a whole. Kazantzakis’ characterisation of this new breed of human and justification of the term Homo hellenicus is steeped in history. The classical Greek civilisation developed at a time when on the one hand great Empires of Asia and Africa ruled the earth and on the other hand uncivilised barbarians lived in anarchy. The Greeks developed at the confluence of three continents, in an infertile, mountainous, poor country where survival of the body was problematic. The environment was perhaps in part responsible for the acuity of the intellect and the richness of spirit that developed in Homo hellenicus.

Homo hellenicus over the centuries developed from this nascent spark of self-consciousness into the flaming ideals of democracy, good government, philosophy, beauty, moderation, respect of the sovereignty of individual city-states but unification against their common enemies. The innate worth of intellectual and spiritual values and the importance that Homo hellenicus attached to them, contributed to their survival and spread throughout the civilised world. The diachronicity of these ideals and their internationalisation show the value we place upon these ideals even today.

Nationalism and globalisation, egocentricity and anarchy are threats to the ideals of Homo hellenicus that beleaguer us today. Our society is threatened by stressors that stem from the placement of values on ephemeral, solipsistic, pecuniary, carnal pursuits. Selfish goals erode the good of society as a whole. The belief that money is the ultimate arbiter and that everything has a price destroys the real values of human existence. The upsurge of nationalism and neofascism destroys the true internationalisation of the human race and the aspiration after common goals based on the ideals of true liberty and respect of other human beings. Moderation in all things, appreciation of beauty, the cultivation of philosophy and intellectual pursuits are still ideals and if I am one to continue to try and attain them, I am sure that others are doing the same.

PEACE

“We shall find peace. We shall hear angels. We shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.’ – Anton Chekhov

The International Day of Peace is celebrated on September 21st every year. In anticipation, I collected my thoughts and wrote down a few lines of what peace means to me. All the more important to reflect on this, in these days of killings, bombings, dirty little wars and internecine ethnic struggles in emerging countries of fragmenting super-powers.

Peace

It is the laughter of children playing outside my window,
The smell of baking in the kitchen and the larder full.
It is the hurrying steps of a returning labourer,
Content with a full day’s work, eager to come home.

It is the fields that bloom, the grain ripening in the sun,
The cows dozing as they chew their cud.
It is my love in her summer dress reading her book
Under the shade of a green-leaf tree.

It is the sound of music drifting down the empty street
As dancing couples whirl in the town hall.
It is the two adolescents that kiss beneath a full moon
While the crickets chirp in approbation.

It is the careless saunter late at night,
The lights left on inside the house, burning like beacons.
It is the sound of airplane engines in the sky, that only
Stir the thoughts of distant exotic places and carefree holidays.

It is a rusty rifle driven into the earth to support a growing vine,
An old soldier’s helmet, now home to a budding flower.
It is the surety of watching your children surviving you,
The swelling pregnant belly and the double-joy of grandchildren.

Peace: It is a quietude and a celebration of the commonplace,
An all-increasing accumulation of small delights that add up to bliss.
Peace, it is a multiplicity of contentments and a realisation
Of what humankind has the capability of being.

What does peace mean to you?

AND THE STOCKS FALL...

“One must be poor to know the luxury of giving.” – George Eliot

Stocks on Wall Street plunged overnight after the collapse of investment banking house Lehman Brothers and the sale of another major player, Merrill Lynch. Meanwhile, the world's biggest insurance firm, American Insurance Group, is battling to find a capital injection. As the US economy takes another hiding the world watches on nervously and the stocks tumble all over the globe. This turn of events is no surprise – it was a question of when, rather than why. Many people’s lives around the world will be affected and as far as the USA is concerned, it will definitely hurt.

Weakness across the Australian share market has dragged stocks down about 1.8 per cent in response to the crisis on Wall Street. Banking stocks have tumbled with ANZ and National Australia Bank down 3.6 per cent. London and Tokyo tumbled to their lowest levels for more than three years on Tuesday after Wall Street had crumbled overnight. Russia 's key stock market index plunged more than nine percent awaiting the start of New York trading.

The share market volatility in Australia will affect the retirement plans of hundreds of thousands of people. Balanced superannuation funds have lost about 11 per cent so far this calendar year. Some people are going to have to stay in the workforce for one or two years longer to get over this hump and it is a significant event for a lot of people and it will affect hundreds of thousands of Australians who really have to clearly rethink their retirement strategies.

So what caused it all? After the warning signs in the late eighties, the USA chose to patch thing up with band-aids, rather with radical, solid solutions. The crisis was managed poorly and the financial problems of the country were swept under the carpet. This situation has been compounded and abetted by the most incompetent government in three-quarters of a century. History will record George W. Bush as the president who did most to weaken and diminish the United States on every front. The Wall Street crisis in part will result in financial power following the drift in economic power away from the USA. After this stocks cleanout, New York will emerge as a cleaner, stronger financial centre, a world financial capital – but not the financial capital…

That will ultimately be good news worldwide, as the USA stock market crash will not seriously affect world economy in the longer turn. Global growth continues around the 4 per cent mark. The BRIC economies (Brazil, Russia, India and China) will still invest about US$22 trillion in today's dollars on infrastructure over the next decade and never mind what the oil-rich Middle East states spend or the regional economies (such as Australia) that hang off the BRICs. China continues to build another Brisbane every month. The spreading of economic power more equitably around the world, ensures that the world is no longer so reliant on a couple of major Western nations, who up till now have dictated the world’s fate.

MOVIE MONDAY - NINOTCHKA

“Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.” – Albert Einstein

Yesterday we watched a classic film starring a legendary actress. It was Ernst Lubitsch’s “Ninotchka” (1939) with the great Greta Garbo. It was a refreshing comedy that still managed to sparkle, nearly 70 year after it was made!

The story is a wry sociopolitical satire that manages to work on multiple levels, but which can nevertheless be enjoyed superficially as a romantic comedy. The film is very much a sign of the times it was made, full of the pre-WWII decadence and gaiety, but with a heavy dark cloud looming overhead. The Soviet emissaries Buljanoff, Iranoff, and Kopalski arrive in Paris to sell some jewellery for the Soviet Government, but the luxury and jollity of the soft capitalist ways begin to corrupt them. The Grand Duchess Swana, formerly of the Russian Royal Family (but now exiled in Paris), and former owner of the jewels, sends her very good friend, playboy Count Léon d'Algout, to sabotage the sale and try to get the jewels returned to her. The Russian emissaries’ incompetence with their fund-raising mission attracts a special envoy from Moscow, the stern and quite Red, Comrade Nina “Ninotchka” Ivanovna. A predictable east-west romance commences, but there is quite hurdle to be overcome as Ninotchka’s ideals come into conflict with her feelings for Léon.

Grabo’s great comedic talent shines forth in this film and this, being her second last film, is a fitting good bye to the silver screen. She plays the icy communist Nina very convincingly, but when she finally breaks into laughter, the transition is utterly believable, just as the shine of the sun as it breaks through clouds on a Spring day. Garbo won an Oscar for her performance in this film and it was well-deserved. Melvyn Douglas plays the debonair Léon and he is perfect foil to Garbo’s Ninotchka, although this is very much her film. The three bumbling Russian emissaries (Sig Ruman, Felix Bressart, Alexander Granach) are very good, as is the swanning Swana (Ina Claire) as supporting actors. There is a memorable guest appearance by Bela Lugosi (the famous Count Dracula of the 30s), who shows another part of his acting talent as the Muscovite Komissar.

The scenario is based on a story by Melchior Lengyel, but the screenplay is a collaboration Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder and Walter Reisch. Witty dialogue with several well-delivered amusing lines interplay with touches of black humour (such as the “Heil Hitler” salute of some German tourists and the frequent references to “Siberia”). I find that so many of these 1930s film had such sparkling dialogue and witty scripts, that it is hard for films nowadays to match them. It is as though the talkies challenged the scriptwriters to do their best work and after a couple of decades the magic went out of their pens. Ernst Lubitsch is great director, but his touch is light in this film and he allows the actors to show their talent, rather than directing them with an iron fist.

Overall a delightful, fun film. Watch it, if you haven’t already!

ART SUNDAY - MURILLO

“Youth should watch joys and shoot them as they fly.” - John Dryden

For Art Sunday today, a whimsical painting by a great painter, the Spaniard, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (born 1617, Sevilla, died 1682, Sevilla). The painting is a favourite of mine and is called “A Girl and her Duenna” (1670 - Oil on canvas, 106 x 127 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington, US). This is a delightful painting, reminiscent of a candid photograph. The shyness of the duenna, who seemingly wants nothing to do with being immortalized but who despite her bashfulness still wants to be present and protect her charge, contrasts with the self-assuredness of adolescent exhibitionism. The young woman in her smiling confidence exudes joie de vivre and the invincibility of youth. The flesh tones sing out of the dark background and the touches of vermillion set a happy mood for this otherwise somber painting.

Murillo was active for almost all his life in his native Seville, although his early career is not well documented. He started working in a naturalistic tenebrist style, showing the influence of Zurbarán. After making his reputation with a series of eleven paintings on the lives of Franciscan saints for the Franciscan monastery in Seville (1645-46), he displaced Zurbarán as the city's leading painter and was unrivalled in this position for the rest of his life.

Most of his paintings are of religious subjects, appealing strongly to popular piety and illustrating the doctrines of the Counter-Reformation church, above all the Immaculate Conception, which was his favourite theme. His mature style was very different to that seen in his early works; it is characterized by idealized figures, soft, melting forms, delicate colouring, and sweetness of expression and mood. The term 'estilo vaporoso' (vaporous style) is often used of it. Murillo also painted genre scenes of beggar children that have a similar sentimental appeal, but his fairly rare portraits are strikingly different in feeling - much more sombre and intellectual.

In 1660, with the collaboration of Valdés Leal and Francisco Herrera the Younger, Murillo founded an academy of painting at Seville and became its first president. He died at Seville in 1682, evidently from the after-effects of a fall from scaffolding. He had many assistants and followers, and his style continued to influence Sevillian painting into the 19th century. His fame in the 18th century and early 19th century was enormous. With Ribera he was the only Spanish painter who was widely known outside his own country and he was ranked by many critics amongst the greatest artists of all time. Later his reputation plummeted, and he was dismissed as facile and sugary, but now that his own work is being distinguished from that of his numerous imitators his star is rising again.

COEUR DE LOUP

“He who sings scares away his woes.” Miguel de Cervantes

Another French song today by the incomparable Belgian singer and songwriter, Philippe Lafontaine. This song "Coeur de Loup" was his first big hit (1989) and launched his career once and for all in Europe in the early 90s. The song garnered many awards in Belgium, France and Quebec. His lyrics are known for being full of jaunty rhythms, alliterations, assonances and double entendres.



The song is a fantastic mixture of word play and brings to mind all things wolf-like. Wolfmen howling at the moon, the wolf and little-red-riding-hood, wolf heart and wolf whistling. Love and lust, joy and misery, talking and being silent. Being in love is like being a kamikaze, like a legionnaire who likes advnture and wishes to travel but wants to do so without commitment…

If your French is up to scratch and idiomatic enough, here are the lyrics:

Cœur de Loup

Pas le temps de tout lui dire
Pas le temps de tout lui taire
Juste assez pour tenter la satyre
Qu'elle sente que j'veux lui plaire
Sous le pli de l'emballage
La lubie de faufiler
La folie de rester sage si elle veut
De n'pas l'embrasser
Quand d'un coup d'aile se déplume
Mon œillet luit fait de l'œil
Même hululer sous la lune ne m'fait pas peur
Pourvu qu'elle veuille

Je n'ai qu'une seule envie
Me laisser tenter
La victime est si belle
Et le crime est si gai

Pas besoin de beaucoup
Mais pas de peu non plus
Par le biais d'un billet fou
Lui faire savoir que j'n'en peux plus
C'est le cas du kamikaze
C'est l'abc du condamné
Le légionnaire qui veut l'avantage des voyages
Sans s'engager
Elle est si frêle esquive
Sous mes bordées d'amour
Je suppose qu'elle suppose
Que je l'aimerai toujours
Le doigts sur l'aventure
Le pied dans l'inventaire
Même si l'affaire n'est pas sûre
Ne pas s'enfuir
Ne pas s'en faire

Je n'ai qu'une seule envie
Me laisser tenter
La victime est si belle
Et le crime est si gai

Cœur de loup
Peur du lit
Séduis-la
Sans délais
Suis le swing
C'est le coup de gong du king. Bong !
Cœur de loup
M'as-tu lu
L'appel aux
Gais délits
Sors du ring
C'est le coup de gong du king. Bong !

Pas le temps de tout lui dire
Ni de quitter la scène
YEP ! Elle aura beau rougir
De toute façon il faut qu'elle m'aime
Je n'ai qu'un seule envie
Me laisser tenter......................
Cœur de loup
Peur du lit
Séduis-la
Sans délai
Où elle est
O LA LA
Beau colis
Joli lot
Cœur de loup
M'as-tu lu
L'appel aux
Gais délits
En dit long
Mets l'hola
C'est joli
Quand c'est laid.

BUSINESS MEALS

“The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

One of the things associated with traveling on business is the business lunch or business dinner or business cocktail party, where one attempts to work in a social setting. It is a very valuable experience in that people are more relaxed and quite likely to be more receptive to new ideas, discuss things in a rather more informal way, be able to interact in a more open and constructive manner. By the by, one can have rather lovely food along the way as this is a tax deductible expense and one may use this means to treat colleagues and prospective clients to some rather fine dining.

I always adhere to the maxim less is more principle. Order one bottle of good wine rather than ply the guests to limitless bottles of disgusting plonk. Organise a single well-rounded, well-cooked and well presented course than several middling to indifferent courses. A few gourmet canapés than an endless supply of cardboard cutout trashy nibblies. After all, this is meant to be about doing business and getting a job done, rather4 than a Lucullan exercise in excessive pleasures of the gastrointestinal kind.

My lat night in Sydney tonight was a case in point where a cocktail party marked the occasion of a professional gathering where I had to make a welcome address. The wine and spirits were good and generous, rather than limitless and indifferent. The hors d’oeuvres liberal and toothsome but not outré. As a result people interacted, talked, communicated, enjoyed.

It’s good to be flying home tonight!

HADRONS & QUANTUM PHYSICS

“Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.” – Arthur Eddington

The word for the day today is HADRON…

hadron |ˈhadˌrän| noun Physics
A subatomic particle of a type including the baryons and mesons that can take part in the strong interaction.
DERIVATIVES
hadronic |hadˈränik| adjective
ORIGIN 1960s: From Greek hadros ‘bulky’ + -on

The world has been forced to focus on the CERN laboratory in Switzerland, as a teenage girl in India has killed herself in fear that the Big Bang experiment may cause the end of the world. The 16-year-old girl, named Chayya from Madhya Pradesh drank pesticide and was rushed to the hospital but died a little later. This was caused by watching doomsday predictions made on Indian news programmes, her father said.

Doomsday predictions around the world abounded as preparations began for the start-up of Europe's Large Hadron Collider. This is a gigantic (27 km long) atomic particle-smasher designed to explore the origins of the universe. Real experiments have not yet begun, but its trial run on Wednesday was accompanied by worries that it might spawn black holes with enough gravitational pull to swallow up the whole Earth. Physicists around the world celebrated the first successful tests of the equipment yesterday.

Experiments that will begin in earnest over the next few days, could revamp modern physics and unlock secrets about the universe and its origins. The huge particle-smashing machine (one of the most complex ever built!) will simulate the time immediately after creation of the universe in the Big Bang that forced matter as we know it into existence.

Although physicists brushed off suggestions that the experiment could create tiny black holes that could cause problems with the planet, poor Chayya and many other people around the world had real fears of a fast approaching Doomsday. Technology and hard science still makes many people uncomfortable or fearful. As our knowledge of science expands and becomes more specialised and complicated, it is beyond the understanding of the average person. We may all use high technology gadgets and place our lives at the mercy of technology when we travel on jet planes, when we listen to our i-pod and watch our TY LCD screens, but not many of us really want to know how it all works.

Ignorance creates fear. Not understanding breeds awe. Rumour runs rife in populations that view technology with the same fascination that they would view magic. Distrust and suspicion hamper progress and the daunting face of the technology involved discourages many from serious study of physics, mathematics, chemistry and all of the other “hard” sciences. How can we remain level-headed when confronted with such an array of quite incomprehensible and apparently magical scientific knowledge, whose simplest everyday applications can seem like wizardry?

SPRING IN SYDNEY

“I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden.” - Ruth Stout

I am in Sydney again for work and take the opportunity of a delayed flight and some spare time in an airport waiting lounge, to bring you my Poetry Wednesday offering early today. Spring has sprung in the Antipodes and the powder blue skies of Sydney are dotted with fleecy clouds – we may have a shower or two today. What better way to celebrate an Australian Spring than with some Australian poetry (a month early in this particular example, but a poem I like, nevertheless).

Mallee* in October

When clear October suns unfold
mallee tips of red and gold

children on their way to school
discover tadpoles in a pool,

iceplants sheathed in beaded glass
spider orchids and shivery grass,

webs with globes of dew alight
budgerigars on their first flight,

tottery lambs and a stilty foal
a papers slough that a snake shed whole,

and a bronzewing's nest of twigs so few
that both the sky and the eggs show through.
Flexmore Hudson

*mallee |ˈmalē| noun
A low-growing bushy Australian eucalyptus that typically has several slender stems.
• Genus Eucalyptus, family Myrtaceae: several species, in particular E. dumosa.
• scrub that is dominated by mallee bushes, typical of some arid parts of Australia.
ORIGIN mid 19th century, from Wuywurung (an Aboriginal language).
Flexmore Hudson (1913-1988) was born in Charters Towers Queensland. He was educated at Adelaide High School and graduated from the University of Adelaide. He began a teaching career in 1934 and taught in the Mallee, and at Scotch College in Adelaide and Adelaide Boys' High School. During the period 1941 to 1947 Hudson founded, edited and published the literary journal, “Poetry”. He also edited the 1943 anthology of Australian verse for Jindyworobak and contributed to the Jindyworobak anthologies from 1938 to 1953. He died in South Australia on 4th May 1988.

Some of the inspiration for his poetry came from his pupils. Whilst teaching at a small school (14 pupils) in the Mallee district of South Australia, the children would tell him of the things they had seen on the way to school. In his poem Mallee in October he refers to the Bronzewing's nest. Quote: "One day I spotted a bronzewing sitting on her eggs, Every morning for about a fortnight I used to stop my bike almost under the nest and watch that bird. I remember how pleased I was that, after a few days, she tolerated my intrusion." taken from This Land - an anthology of Australian Poetry by M.M. Flynn and J. Groom published 1968.

CHRYSANTHEMUMS

“Joy is the best of wine.” - George Eliot

On the ninth day of the ninth moon, the Chinese celebrate Chrysanthemum Day. This is to honour T’ao Yuan-Ming, a poet who loved chrysanthemums above all other flowers as they bloomed in frosty autumn when all other blossoms were long dead. Chrysanthemum wine is drunk to ensure a long life. The Japanese adopted the same festival on the same day and named it Choyo-no-Sekku. It is celebrated nowadays with many chrysanthemum shows and competitions for the best blooms.

Drinking Wine, V

I built my house amongst the throng of men,
But there is no din of horse or carriage going by.
You ask me, puzzled, “How can such a paradox arise?”
When the heart’s remote, all earthly things stand aloof.
I cut chrysanthemums by the eastern hedge,
Afar on the horizon shimmer the southern hills;
How good the highland air is at sunset…
The flying birds in company come to their nests.
In this is true beauty, real savour,
But probing inside myself, I find no apt words.
T’ao Yuan-Ming (365-427 AD)

ROMULUS, MY FATHER

“The father who does not teach his son his duties is equally guilty with the son who neglects them.” – Confucius

Continuing on the theme of Fathers’ Day in yesterday’s blog, I am reviewing an Australian movie we watched at the weekend, “Romulus, My Father” (2007), by director Richard Roxburgh. The movie is based on the autobiographical book of the same name by author and philosopher, Raimond Gaita. Romulus Gaita fled his home in Yugoslavia at the age of thirteen, and came to Australia with his young wife Christine and their four-year-old son, Raimond, soon after the end of World War II. Raimond Gaita tells a tragic story about growing up with his father in the lonely stretches of country Australia.

The film translates the book well and while Raimond tells the story of his father’s life in his new homeland, he also explores the morals and personality of the man who shaped his future. The story is about marital relationships, love, compassion, friendship. It is violent and tender, it is harsh and gentle like the land in which it takes place. It explores the nightmarish reality of madness, the balance between work and the moral order of things. Therein is portrayed the poverty of existence, but also the richness of heart and soul. It is a superficially simple tale of honesty (with ourselves first and then with others), a memoir of a love of a man for a woman and love between a father and his son.

The film is quite brutal and violent in parts, poignant and sparse in its emotions, but quite powerful in its frugality. Ferocious images assail the viewer’s eyes and the faint-hearted may do well to not watch it as the violence grips one by the throat. One wonders how the tender, young child, Raimond, survived through such a brutal childhood to become a foremost academic and well-respected philosopher. The relationship between him and his father may have been the salvaging grace. As Raimond Gaita says: “On many occasions in my life I have had the need to say, and thankfully have been able to say: I know what a good workman is; I know what an honest man is; I know what friendship is; I know because I remember these things in the person of my father.”

The child actor Kodi Smit-McPhee who plays Raimond definitely is the one that carries the film, while Eric Bana does a creditable job as Romulus. Franka Potente plays Raimond’s mother and good performances are also given by Marton Czokas and Russell Dysktra as two brothers, family friends of the Gaitas. Australian TV viewers will recognize Terry Norris in a small supporting role (“Blue Heelers”, “Matlock Police” “Division 4” and “Homicide” - and how he has aged!).

The music by Basil Hogios and the cinematography by Geoffrey Simpson are a great addition to the film and contribute hauntingly to the atmosphere. Although there is great sadness and loneliness expressed in the film, there is also an underlying optimism and determination to succeed in the face of adversity. Raimond’s success in later life can be read between the lines and in the epilogue screen after the fade out, we are pleased to learn that Romulus also found some tranquility and fulfillment later in life also.

It is a grim film, a violent and powerful one, but worth seeing nevertheless.

ART SUNDAY - FATHERS' DAY

“I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection.” - Sigmund Freud

It is Fathers’ Day here in Australia today and many a family were celebrating Dad’s special day. For Art Sunday, quite aptly a painting inspired by the day: Rembrandt’s “The Return of the Prodigal Son” (1662, Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg), illustrating one of the most poignant of the parables in the New Testament.

Luke 15:11-32 (21st Century King James Version)
And He said: “A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, `Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.' And he divided unto them his estate. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want.

And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine ate, and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, `How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, "Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants."'

And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said unto him, `Father, I have sinned against Heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.' But the father said to his servants, `Bring forth the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. And bring hither the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to be merry.

"Now his elder son was in the field; and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, `Thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound.' And he was angry and would not go in; therefore came his father out and entreated him. And he answering said to his father, `Lo, these many years have I served thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment; and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this thy son was come who hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.' And he said unto him, `Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry and be glad; for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.'”

Happy Fathers’ Day!

SONG SATURDAY - LOLITA

“First love is a little foolish and a lot of curiosity.” - George Bernard Shaw

OK, I am remembering my adolescence… No other explanation for sharing this little French number with you all. Sweet, mindless, music for the masses, but soooooo catchy! Forget your age, your inhibitions and your classical ambitions and just enjoy it.

Alizee, singing “Moi, Lolita”


Moi, Lolita

Moi je m'appelle Lolita
Lo, ou bien Lola
Du pareil au même
Moi je m'appelle Lolita
Quand je rêve aux loups
C'est Lola qui saigne
Quand fourche ma langue,
j'ai là un fou rire aussi fou
Qu'un phénomène Je m'appelle Lolita
Lo de vie, lo aux amours diluviennes.

Moi je m'appelle Lolita
Collégienne aux bas
Bleus de méthylène
Moi je m'appelle Lolita
Coléreuse et pas
Mi-coton, mi-laine
Motus et bouche qui n'dis pas
À maman que je suis un phénomène
Je m'appelle Lolita
Lo de vie, lo aux amours diluviennes

Refrain

C'est pas ma faute
Et quand je donne ma langue aux chats
Je vois les autres
Tout prêts à se jeter sur moi
C'est pas ma faute à moi
Si j'entends tout autour de moi
Hello, helli, t'es A (L.O.L.I.T.A.)
Moi Lolita

Me, Lolita

Me, I'm called Lolita
Lo or just Lola
It's all the same
Me, I'm called Lolita,
When I consider my mistakes
It's Lola who has to bleed.
When my tongue slips, I laugh elatedly
Elated, like a phenomenon
I'm called Lolita,
Lo for spirit, Lo for a flood of love

Me, I'm called Lolita
Student underneath
Tight blue jeans.
Me, I'm called Lolita
Quick-tempered or maybe not
Half-cotton, half-wool
Silent
With a mouth that doesn't tell mum
That I am a phenomenon
I'm called Lolita
Lo for spirit, Lo for a flood of love

Refrain

It's not my fault
And if I want to quit
I see the others
All ready to throw themselves upon me.
It's not my fault,
If I hear everything around me
Hello, helli, you're A (L.O.L.I.T.A.)
Me Lolita

Enjoy your weekend!

PANCAKES

“Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.” - Ernestine Ulmer

Looking through my diary that I was writing when I was staying in Leiden, Holland, quite a few years ago, I found this forgotten recipe that I picked up from a colleague (named Suzette!) who was working in the same laboratory that I was. I remember with fondness my time in Leiden and the taste of these delicious pancakes contributes to the sweetness of the memory.

LEIDSE PANNEKOEKEN (LEIDEN PANCAKES)

Ingredients
• 1 and 1/2 cups of milk
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 cup plain flour
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoonfuls vanilla essence
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 cup of marmalade
• 1 cup of orange juice
• 1 orange, peeled and divided into pithless segments
• Zest of one lemon
• 2 tablespoonfuls Cointreau liqueur
• Icing sugar for dusting
• Whipped cream
• Mint sprig for garnish
• Cherry syrup.

Method
Beat the egg and add the milk gradually alternating with the melted butter. Sift in the flour and mix well to form a smooth batter. Add the vanilla essence, stir well and put aside to rest for about an hour while preparing the filling.

Heat the marmalade in a pan until smooth. Add the lemon zest and the orange segments. Warm until the juice of the oranges is half absorbed, stirring gently so that the mixture does not stick to the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat and add the liqueur. Heat the butter in a skillet and drop enough batter on it to cover the bottom of the pan in a thin layer. Cook on one side and then flip to cook the other side. Remove and repeat with the other pancake. Spoon the filling into the pancakes and roll up, laying each one aside.

Heat the pancakes in a microwave oven until hot. Place each pancake on a dish, dust with icing sugar and pipe some whipped cream peaks on the side. Decorate with the mint and pour some cherry syrup on the empty part of the plate so that the pancake is surrounded by the syrup.

CALENDS, CALENDAR

“Butterflies count not months but moments, and yet have time enough.” - Rabindranath Tagore

It was on this day in 1751 that the British Parliament decreed that Britain should change over from the old style, Julian Calendar to the new style, Gregorian Calendar, which corresponded with the solar calendar and was therefore 11 days ahead. To make up for the discrepancy, in 1752 September 4th was followed by September 14th. This led to wild demonstrations in the streets of London where the angered mob demanded: “Give us our 11 days back!”.

The solar year depends on the revolution of the Earth around the sun, each revolution taking 365.2422 days. The tilt of the Earth’s axis is responsible for the seasons. At the same time, the moon has influenced the development of a calendar with each lunar cycle lasting for approximately 1/12 of the solar year. This has given rise to subdivision of the year into 12, sometimes 13 months. The word month itself shows its close association with the word moon. The ancient Greeks had a similar association: mén = “month”, méne = “moon”.

The Western calendar developed from the ancient Greek and Roman calendars. The term calendar itself is derived from the Latin calenda meaning the first day of the month. The ancient Roman calendar is the one that corresponds most closely to our own and was called the Julian Calendar as it was standardised by Julius Caesar in 46 BC. His Greek astronomer Sosigenes devised a 12 month calendar of 365 days, with a leap year of 366 days every four years. Each month had 30 or 31 days except for February, which was considered unlucky and hence had 29 days except every leap year when it had 30. This was until Augustus Caesar renamed the old Roman month Sextilus after himself, in the process robbing February of a day in order to increase August’s 30 days to 31.

The Julian calendar assumed that the year lasted for exactly 365.24 days. The real year was about 11 minutes and 14 seconds shorter than the Julian year and over the decades, the seconds and minutes added up to hours and days, making the real seasons drift away from the calendrical seasons. After a few centuries, the Church began to find it difficult to set the moveable Church feasts such as Easter, which depend on the Vernal equinox. Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 decided to remedy the situation, which by that time had led to a calendrical discrepancy a few days ahead of the seasonal calendar. The Pope decreed that February would have 29 days in century years that could be divided evenly by 400 (e.g. 1600, 2000), but only 28 days in century years that could not be divided evenly by 400 (e.g. 1700, 1800, 1900). Commencing in October 1582, ten days were dropped from the calendar in order to correct the discrepancy! The resulting calendar is the Western Gregorian Calendar in use throughout most countries around the world today.

Most Catholic countries adopted the Gregorian calendrical reformations immediately after Pope Gregory’s modifications, and other Western nations followed suit soon after (e.g. France, Spain, Portugal, Luxembourg 1582). As the Pope had no authority over the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Julian calendar persisted in its use in the countries where the Orthodox faith was the official state religion (e.g. Russia [adopting the Gregorian calendar in 1918], Rumania [1919], Bulgaria [1915], Greece [1923]). Even when for practical reasons the Gregorian calendar was adopted by the laity, the religious feast days continued to be calculated according to the Julian Calendar. This situation persists in some countries to this day. Some of the Eastern Churches calculate all of their feast days according to the Julian Calendar (which is now 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar!). For example, the Ukrainian Orthodox Christmas is celebrated on the 7th of January.

Calendar is of course derived from Calends, the first day of the Roman months. Aptly our word of the day:

calends |ˈkaləndz; ˈkā-| (also kalends) plural noun
The first day of the month in the ancient Roman calendar.
ORIGIN Old English (denoting an appointed time): from Old French calendes, from Latin kalendae, calendae ‘first day of the month’ (when accounts were due and the order of days was proclaimed); related to Latin calare and Greek kalein ‘call, proclaim.’

POETRY WEDNESDAY - LOUIS MACNEICE

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” – Marcel Proust

A poem today by a favourite of mine, Louis Macneice (1907 - 1963).

The Sunlight on the Garden

The sunlight on the garden
Hardens and grows cold,
We cannot cage the minute
Within its nets of gold;
When all is told
We cannot beg for pardon.

Our freedom as free lances
Advances towards its end;
The earth compels, upon it
Sonnets and birds descend;
And soon, my friend,
We shall have no time for dances.

The sky was good for flying
Defying the church bells
And every evil iron
Siren and what it tells:
The earth compels,
We are dying, Egypt, dying

And not expecting pardon,
Hardened in heart anew,
But glad to have sat under
Thunder and rain with you,
And grateful too
For sunlight on the garden.
Louis Macneice

Louis Macneice was born on September 12th, 1907, in Belfast, Ireland. He attended Oxford, where he majored in classics and philosophy. In 1930, he married Giovanna Ezra and accepted a post as classics lecturer at the University of Birmingham, a position he held until 1936, when he went on to teach Greek at Bedford College for Women, University of London. In 1941, he joined the BBC as a staff writer and producer. Macneice found an audience for his work through British radio. Some of his best-known plays, including 'Christopher Columbus' (1944), and 'The Dark Tower' (1946), were originally written for radio and later published.

Early in his career, Macneice was identified with a group of politically committed poets whose work appeared in Michael Roberts's anthology “New Signatures”. Macneice drew many of the texts for Modern Poetry: “A Personal Essay from the New Signature poets”. Modern Poetry was Macneice's plea for an "impure" poetry expressive of the poet's immediate interests and his sense of the natural and the social world.

Despite his association with young British poets Stephen Spender, W. H. Auden, writer Christopher Isherwood, and other left-wing poets, Macneice was as mistrustful of political programs as he was of philosophical systems. He was never a member of the Communist Party or any other political groups, and he was quite candid about the ambiguities of his political attitudes. "My sympathies are Left," he wrote. "But not in my heart or my guts."

Although he chose to live the majority of his adult life in London, Macneice frequently returned to the landscapes of his childhood, and he took great pride in his Irish heritage. His poetry is characterized by its familiar, sometimes humorous tone and its integration of contemporary ideas and images. In addition to his poetry and radio dramas, Macneice also wrote the verse translation “The Agamemnon of Aeschylus” (1936), translated Goethe's “Faust” (1951), and collaborated with Auden on the “Travelogue Letters from Iceland” (1937).

In August of 1963, Macneice, on location with a BBC team, insisted on going down into a mineshaft to check on sound effects. He caught a chill that was not diagnosed as pneumonia until he was fatally ill. He died on September 3, 1963, just before the publication of his last book of poems, “The Burning Perch”. He was 55 years old.

GLADIOLI, MARATHON, LONDON & VIETNAM

“When the mind is thinking it is talking to itself.” - Plato

The gladiolus, Gladiolus spp, is the birthday flower for this day. The name is derived from the Latin gladius, meaning “sword”, in reference to the sword-shaped leaves. The gladiolus symbolises readiness for battle and in the language of flowers means: “You pierce my heart”. Some famous people born this day: Georg Böhm, German composer (1661); Liliuokalani, last queen of Hawaii (1838); Henry George, economist (1839); Wilhelm Ostwald, Nobel laureate (1909) chemist (1853); Allan Drury, author (1918); Jimmy Connors, tennis player (1952).

On this day in 490 BC, supposedly Phidippides ran the first Marathon to announce the victory of the Greeks over the Persians in Marathon, Attica, Greece. He dropped dead from exhaustion promptly afterwards. The tradition of running the Marathon in the Olympic Games is a commemoration of that historic victory and the original fatal run. There is quite a controversy surrounding this claim and one may investigate it here, and here.

In 1666 on this day the Great Fire of London started and lasted for 3 days. Everyone knows the Great Fire of London started in a baker's shop in the aptly named Pudding Lane, but was it an accident or a “pernicious Papist plot” as people wildly proclaimed? Following decades of political and religious upheaval, the restoration in 1660 of the Protestant Charles II ensured that suspicion lingered around republicans and Catholics alike. With the country also at war with the French and Dutch, paranoid xenophobia (a familiar English trait) was widespread.

Fires in London were very common, given the capital's largely timber construction. Yet for years there had been warnings of London's total destruction by fire: In 1559 Daniel Baker had predicted London's destruction by 'a consuming fire'. In April 1665, Charles had warned the Lord Mayor of London of the danger caused by the narrow streets and overhanging timber houses. Furthermore, a long, hot summer had left London dry and drought had depleted water reserves.

Yet the greatest fear among Londoners was not fire. Plague had killed over 68,000 people in the previous two years. Although Charles II had returned to Whitehall in February 1666, London remained unsafe, with death carts still commonplace. What worried inhabitants most was the strong east wind. This, combined with the dry, dusty air, was known to be particularly effective in carrying plague. It would prove as equally efficient as fire in taking lives…

It is the Proclamation of Independence Day in Vietnam today (since 1954). Vietnam was part of French Indochina and only gained its independence in 1954. Decades of internal discord, civil war mixed with external interference and tragic armed conflicts have hampered its development until recently. The country has an area of 330,000 square km and a population close to 70 million people. It stretches along the South China Sea down a mountainous backbone and encompassing two river deltas: The Song Hong in the North and the Mekong to the South. Rice, coffee and rubber are the main crops with reserves of coal, anthracite, lignite, tin, iron ore and extensive rainforests beginning to be developed. The climate is monsoonal with moderate rainfall. The capital city is Hanoi with other major cities including Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Hué, Rach Gia, Nha Trang and Haiphong.

PARIS IN THE SPRING...

“The magic of first love is our ignorance that it can ever end.” - Benjamin Disraeli

It is the first day of calendrical Spring in the Southern hemisphere today and the day was punctuated with some bursts of sunshine, gusts of wind and tussles of gray clouds flitting across the skies. Changeable weather is a hallmark of Melbourne, and perhaps not more so than in Spring when we experience rather a lot of it. The garden is blooming with fragrant blossoms: Freesias, narcissi, hyacinths, jonquils, stocks, leptospermum. Tulips, primroses, anemones, ranunculus and plum blossom colour the grey days with splashes of colour. Showers alternating with sunshine, cold and warm in succession, blue skies and gray. Whatever the weather says, Spring is here.

At the weekend, there was a clutch of household duties, work activities and chores to get through, but nevertheless on Sunday we managed to watch a movie. It was the 2006 Gallic portmanteau film, “Paris, Je T’ Aime” the collective work of 18 different directors who each directed a 5-minute-or-so segment of the movie. The 18 stories are little cameos - independent, but interdependent and all having the same theme: Love, and what’s more, Love in Paris. There are some great actors and actresses obviously having a wonderful time, gallivanting through Paris neighbourhoods. Gerard Depardieu, Fanny Ardant, Bob Hoskins, Ben Gazzara, Marianne Faithfull, Juliette Binoche, Nick Nolte, Li Xin, Elijah Wood, Natalie Portman, Gena Rowlands, etc… Various directors go through their paces and include The Coen Brothers, Wes Craven, Alfonso Cuaron, Vincenzo Natali, Oliver Schmitz, Alexander Payne, Gus Van Sant, Gurinda Chadha.

Some stories are fantastic and marvelously inventive, some funny, some poignant and sad, others wistful and poetic, some downright silly. Nevertheless, most of them are well crafted and beautifully acted. There are vampires and tourists, young and old people, mimes and children, lovers and would-be lovers, French and non-French people. Various forms of love are explored and towards the end we see some characters from some stories fleetingly interacting. However, one of the strengths of the movie is the epigrammatic and self-contained characterization that is so well-handled by most of the screen writers and the directors. The success of this film is to be emulated by a film that is being made now, “New York, I Love You”, the collective effort of 12 different film-makers, producing – you guessed it – a portmanteau film of 12 stories about love in New York…

“Paris Je T’ Aime” is a delightful film to watch, even though one cannot enjoy equally all of the stories one sees. The great variety that is spread there for one’s delectation is like a banquet that one can sample at will, nibble here and there and reach satiety very pleasantly.